Jean & Mary

Jean: When Mary and I were campaigning against prop 8, we often wondered where the faces and the stories of GLBT couples and families were who are affected by this divisive proposition. We were in the abstract, we thought. When prop 8 passed, I blamed myself for not having spoken to more people around me. But I was afraid. Without the presence of equality rights campaigners in the Asian American communities, we felt like we were doing it all by ourselves. That's why we jumped at the opportunity to participate in the 13 Love Stories art project sponsored by the UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures. Being part of an ethnic minority and the GLBT community, we have to keep coming out. We have to keep talking about our rights. Project like this helped us to do so in the most humanistic way. Please spread the word.

The UCLA Art | Global Health Center presents an important and timely photography and video project entitled “13LoveStories.com.” Narrated video slideshows are currently on the web at www.13LoveStories.com that tell the story of 13 LGBT couples in their own words. The overarching goal is to raise social and public awareness about the civil rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender couples/families. This visual activism project intends to create a powerful response for social change around LGBT unions and the Proposition 8 debate by showing images of LGBT couples in all their diversity. Asian Americans are among the couples involved.